The 37th meeting of the Governing Board of the Green Climate Fund [GCF] is being held in Tbilisi. The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Otar Shamugia, and the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, Mafalda Duarte, made opening remarks at the event.

The Minister thanked the members of the Board and the Secretariat of the Green Climate Fund for selecting Georgia as the host country for the Board meeting.

“It is important for us that Georgia is hosting the 37th meeting of the Green Climate Fund GCF Board. The negative impact of climate change has manifested itself in intensified natural events all across the planet. GCF has funded two national projects in Georgia for implementing mitigation and adaptation measures. Furthermore, we are also involved in GCF regional projects. We hope that fruitful cooperation with the Green Climate Fund will continue in the future. I believe that the decisions made in Tbilisi regarding the financing of important projects will be another step forward for developing countries in dealing with the global problem of climate change”, - said Otar Shamugia.

“This is the first time the Green Climate Fund Board meeting is held in the Eastern European region. The mentioned meeting is crucial since the Board of Directors has to make decisions that will be implemented in the next four years. Our partnership with Georgia started in 2016, and since then we have been implementing several joint projects in different directions. Within the mentioned projects, we are planning to visit different locations this week”, - added Mafalda Duarte.

Nino Tandilashvili, a member of the Governing Board of the Green Climate Fund, the First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, representing the countries of the Eastern European region headed the opening of the session. Maya Bitadze, Chair of the Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Committee of the Parliament of Georgia attended the meeting.

The GCF is the world’s largest fund that helps developing countries meet their climate change goals.

The high-ranking representatives of relevant Ministries from the US, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Argentina, China, Great Britain, Spain, Japan, Egypt attended the event.